Target detection exploiting covariance matrix structures in MIMO radar

Abstract We aim to address the problem of target detection in collocated multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) radar where the disturbance covariance matrix is unknown. In practice, the disturbance covariance matrix has a persymmetric or Toeplitz structure, when the MIMO radar receiver is equipped with a symmetrically or uniformly spaced linear array. We exploit the persymmetric or Toeplitz structure of the disturbance covariance matrix to design two adaptive detectors that do not require training data. Analytical expressions for the probability of false alarm and detection probability are derived for the proposed detector that takes the persymmetry into account. Numerical examples are provided to show that the proposed detectors outperform the conventional counterparts.